Ok, it's still my personal blog...

That's why I'm making a fitness-related note, since I've blogged about that here off and on in the last several months.

I took a month off from running and added high intensity (HIIT) sets of various exercises to my other workout routines. Partly just to see how that would work as far as keeping up my aerobic ability. Turns out it worked great. Like insanely well. Last week, for instance, I broke the running vacation and did 3 miles, mostly slow-paced.

Then today, a full week later, I ran 4 miles--as if I'd been steadily running every day, with perhaps more ease.

There's apparently a whole debate between people with time to debate this stuff online about whether HIIT workouts (plyometric exercises, kettlebells, old-fashioned calisthenics) are superior to "steady-state" cardio like biking or running. I don't really care, as I like running and HIIT workouts and have proven to myself that one can easily contribute to my ability to do the other.

No real revelation to a fitness instructor or someone who's done this steadily all their life, I'm sure, but to someone like me, who more or less avoided exercise between age 28 or so and 43, it felt pretty good to make a plan and then a discovery entirely on my own.

That's the main thing about exercise, for me--as long as I work with the fact I'm easily bored and change things up on a regular basis, I continue enjoying what I do.

We now return you to other more interesting stuff.